Alright, I'm in need of some advice. Let me give you some background knowledge.
We rescued Guin (the old cat) last November when we found her as a kitten hiding in a shed, right before a big snowstorm. She's always been extremely shy and likes to hide when she feels overwhelmed. Even my boyfriend and I need to approach her slowly when we want to pet her or risk startling her. She grew up in a household with Benjamin (the oldest cat) and Freya (who passed away last week). Well for about two weeks this stray began following me and my boyfriend everywhere when we were walking in our neighborhood. We became attached to her and when we heard that the animal control was going to come for her, we had to bring her home. We were trying to do the slow introduction, through the doorways, etc, but Benjamin is extremely nosy and proceeded to find a way to open the doorways so he could meet the new cat. Immediately Benjamin and the new cat became on good terms. They don't bother each other at all. However, when Guin saw her, she didn't react as well. Lots of hissing and growling. Guin tried to hole herself up in the bedroom and refused to come out without us physically removing her. We've allowed her to use the bedroom as a safe room so she can retreat when she is overwhelmed. We've tried offering her a towel that smells of Penelope, the new cat.
We even put Penelope up at night in our study, with separate food bowl and litter box, but Benjamin will, once again, break her out of the room. So our only solution is to shut Guin in the bedroom. Everytime we try to do the slow intro, Benjamin or the new cat proves their abilities as escape artists. When Penelope is put away and the cats are, miraculously, not breaking her out of the room, we can bring Guin onto the other side of the house and she will hesitantly stay put and within an hour she'll go back to her normal, anxious but calm self. However, if the new cat somehow gets loose and Guin sees, Guin will flip out. She will hiss, growl, and make a motion to flee. Penelope doesn't even look like she's paying attention to it; doesn't hiss or growl back, and is usually totally interested in something else enitrely.
On my mom's suggestion, I tried placing Guin in the metal crate so the new girl could met her without worrying about a fight. New girl wasn't even interested and it just resulted in Penelope sleeping somewhere and Guin curled up waiting to leave the crate so she could hide. I tried switching roles, placing Penelope in the crate so Guin could feel safe sniffing and investigating, but Guin reacted the same way. Hiss, growl, flee and even charged at the crate, making a swiping motion before running away.
I'm not sure how to approach this. How can I make Guin feel comfortable and safe with the new cat? I'm not expecting bffs, but I'd like them to be able to be free to roam the house without fear of stressing out Guin or Penelope getting hurt.
We rescued Guin (the old cat) last November when we found her as a kitten hiding in a shed, right before a big snowstorm. She's always been extremely shy and likes to hide when she feels overwhelmed. Even my boyfriend and I need to approach her slowly when we want to pet her or risk startling her. She grew up in a household with Benjamin (the oldest cat) and Freya (who passed away last week). Well for about two weeks this stray began following me and my boyfriend everywhere when we were walking in our neighborhood. We became attached to her and when we heard that the animal control was going to come for her, we had to bring her home. We were trying to do the slow introduction, through the doorways, etc, but Benjamin is extremely nosy and proceeded to find a way to open the doorways so he could meet the new cat. Immediately Benjamin and the new cat became on good terms. They don't bother each other at all. However, when Guin saw her, she didn't react as well. Lots of hissing and growling. Guin tried to hole herself up in the bedroom and refused to come out without us physically removing her. We've allowed her to use the bedroom as a safe room so she can retreat when she is overwhelmed. We've tried offering her a towel that smells of Penelope, the new cat.
We even put Penelope up at night in our study, with separate food bowl and litter box, but Benjamin will, once again, break her out of the room. So our only solution is to shut Guin in the bedroom. Everytime we try to do the slow intro, Benjamin or the new cat proves their abilities as escape artists. When Penelope is put away and the cats are, miraculously, not breaking her out of the room, we can bring Guin onto the other side of the house and she will hesitantly stay put and within an hour she'll go back to her normal, anxious but calm self. However, if the new cat somehow gets loose and Guin sees, Guin will flip out. She will hiss, growl, and make a motion to flee. Penelope doesn't even look like she's paying attention to it; doesn't hiss or growl back, and is usually totally interested in something else enitrely.
On my mom's suggestion, I tried placing Guin in the metal crate so the new girl could met her without worrying about a fight. New girl wasn't even interested and it just resulted in Penelope sleeping somewhere and Guin curled up waiting to leave the crate so she could hide. I tried switching roles, placing Penelope in the crate so Guin could feel safe sniffing and investigating, but Guin reacted the same way. Hiss, growl, flee and even charged at the crate, making a swiping motion before running away.
I'm not sure how to approach this. How can I make Guin feel comfortable and safe with the new cat? I'm not expecting bffs, but I'd like them to be able to be free to roam the house without fear of stressing out Guin or Penelope getting hurt.
